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The Zurich administrative court said in a ruling released Tuesday it had upheld a local registry's office decision to reject the letter as a given name in the best interests of the child, Switzerland's 20 Minuten news website reported.

The court rejected the parents' argument they wanted to honor their daughter's great-grandparents Johanna and Josef with the initial as one of her middle names, saying they could have chosen the already-accepted Jo instead.

Though the parents wanted to pronounce the name "Jay," the court noted the letter is pronounced "Yott" in German, creating confusion. The court also said people would be inclined to put a period after the J, though it wasn't an abbreviation.